Tough Love

She was looking for a safe place to hide. She never expected to find a reason to stay.

Kiara is barely surviving. Trapped in a toxic, drug-fueled rental house and drowning under the weight of her own past, she's determined to keep her head down, maintain her grades, and stay entirely alone. She doesn't have the luxury of trusting anyone-especially not someone as bright, beautiful, and put-together as Ashlyn.

Ashlyn has her future perfectly mapped out, but she can't ignore the fiercely guarded girl in her class. When Kiara's living situation violently implodes, Ashlyn doesn't hesitate to pull her out of the wreckage. She offers Kiara the spare room in her apartment, giving her the one thing she hasn't had in years: a safe place to land.

Desperate to protect Ashlyn from her chaotic, broken life, Kiara establishes a strict boundary: they are just roommates. No labels, no romance, no crossing the line. But living just down the hall from the girl who saved her makes ignoring their electric connection entirely impossible.

Just as the walls between them finally begin to crumble, Ashlyn's fiercely protective-and dangerously jealous-roommate Kimm decides she wants Ashlyn for herself. Weaponizing Kiara's deepest insecurities, Kimm masterminds a quiet sabotage that forces Kiara to retreat back into the dark.

Now, Kiara must make an impossible choice: keep running to protect Ashlyn from the wreckage of her life, or finally turn around and fight for the love she's always been too terrified to claim.